recipes, travel and food journal

A Flashback to the Eighties?

What brings you back to the eighties? Well, in my case – as far as music – this song from Wham!

What brings me back to the eighties in terms of food? Buttered pasta and tomato sauce on the side.

We all have childhood memories about eating, and we all can relate to a certain food during a specific period of our lives. When I was a child, I still remember pasta cooking in the boiling pot and, as soon as it was done (not necessarily al dente), we used to add butter to prevent spaghetti from sticking together. To eat spaghetti, a simple tomato sauce with dried oregano was served to pour over the pasta. I thought that was so Italian. However, little did I know that this was not the way Italians ate their spaghetti.

While we were in our house in Umbria, my mother in law told us that she was going to prepare pasta fredda (a tradition in my husband’s family during Summer season). I was so surprised to see that she served it just the way I used to eat pasta when I was a child – with the tomato sauce on the side, but this time the dish was prepared in respect of Italian traditions – pasta cooked al dente, fresh ingredients and using olive oil. This dish is served at room temperature and it is so convenient that you can prepare it ahead of time.

The recipe calls for taglierini all’uovo, a type of long ribbon egg pasta thinner than tagliatelle.

1 kg of ripped plum tomatoes like the San Marzano type – cut into halves.

1 whole carrots peeled

2-3 celery stalks

1/2 an onion

some parsley

some basil

salt to taste

Extra virgin olive oil.

Method

In a saucepan add tomatoes and the carrot, celery, onion, parsley, and some of the basil. Do not add water or oil. Cover the saucepan and let it simmer until tomatoes soften – about 30-40 minutes. Discard carrot, celery, onion and parsley. The reason we are taking these ingredients out is because these are “odori” (in Italian gastronomyas referred to herbs and vegetables to add aromas to food). In fact, these are just used to add aromas to the tomato sauce. If you keep them, they can overpower the final flavor. Think about when making homemade broth – you just use vegetables and meat to flavor the liquid; the same happens with this tomato sauce.

Pass tomatoes through a food mill to discard skin and seeds.

Transfer the sauce to a sauce pan and simmer until the sauce thickens. Add fresh basil. Let it cool.

In a pot boil water and add coarse salt. Add pasta and cook until al dente.

Drain pasta and add enough olive oil to prevent it from sticking. Let it cool.

Serve at room temperature.

Note: This is a refreshing dish and I suggest preparing it two hours ahead. Do not use grated Parmesan. It just needs fresh country bread!

I prepare a marinara sauce that uses carrot, celery, and onion but not as odori, something I’m not familiar with. I cannot wait to try this, Ambrosiana, especially now, when this area’s tomatoes are at their peak.
Your daughter is such a beautiful little girl. Look at that smile! I bet she’s already Daddy’s Little Girl.

Oh my, Wham does bring back those 80’s memories! It is amazing to learn how simple so many of those Italian pasta dishes are — a reminder that delicious dishes do not require great complexity, in fact, that can often mask the good flavors of a classic dish!

I’m so interested in this. I could eat cold pasta out of the fridge any day 🙂 but I’ve not seen pasta presented at room temp like this with the sauce on the side. So many of my mothers dishes would be prepared ahead of time and left to be eaten room temp. Sounds lovely and perfect for these last hot days of summer. Thanks for sharing this, I can’t wait to try it!
And that baby….she’s absolutely adorable !

Thank you! Italians use butter and sage sauce but usually they top it over ravioli. I remember going to college in the 90’s and often frequented the cafeteria. It offered a dreadful pasta with a buttered sauce!

Categories

Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few minutes and refresh this page.

Advertisements

About

I am a food lover blogging from the eternal city of Rome. Ambrosia in Roman and Greek Mythology was the food of the gods. Therefore, this is a site about tales of real, fresh, and delicious food available to all of us human beings. In this blog, my aim is also to share pictures while travelling in Italy and abroad.